1. Field of the Invention
A chili harvester in the form of a vehicle that is self propelled for movement along rows of chili pepper plants and including rotatably driven picking units for removing chili pods from the plants and depositing them onto rearwardly and upwardly extending conveyors which deposit the chili pods and any leaves, stems or other trash material into a rotatable separating drum. The rotating separating drum is mounted and driven for rotation about an inclined axis with the chili pods and other material being deposited in the upper end thereof and migrating forwardly toward the lower end with trash and other material dropping between circumferentially spaced members which form the separating drum. The chili pods which have been separated from the leaves, stems and other trash are discharged onto a rearwardly extending conveyor having a bench positioned alongside thereof to receive personnel which can finally inspect the chili pods and remove any undesirable chili pods and any remaining trash with the cleaned and separated chili pods then being discharged into a trailing dump trailer unit. The separating procedure also includes an air discharge unit to assist in moving the material into and through the separating drum and to enhance the separating operation in the separating drum.
2. Description of the Prior Art
My prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,602 discloses a chili pepper harvester with forwardly disposed, rotatably driven picking units combined with conveyor structure to collect the chili pods removed from the plants by the picking units. This patent and the prior patents cited therein are incorporated as prior art in this application.
While various types of harvesters with picking units and conveyors are well known, the prior art does not include a mobile vehicle with a rotatable separating drum associated with the conveying units to separate leaves, trash, stones, dirt, stems and the like from the chili pepper pods. The prior art also fails to disclose the specific arrangement of conveyor units including a final inspection conveyor associated with a bench for personnel to remove undesirable chili pods and any remaining trash or other material with the finally inspected chili pods then being conveyed to a dump trailer attached to the self propelled chili harvester.